MTPyle
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Whipple Superchargers 6122 BITD CCDC 2021 Race report
I have been putting off doing a race report until we finished a race and have a positive experience. Happy to report that Cal City was our first race in two years that we did not have a single truck/engine issue.
Let me say that again, since we have put the LT1 engine in our truck this is the first time we have had zero issues with the truck during the race. Feels so damn good.
Just to be clear most of the issues were not the engine’s fault in the past. Lots of issues caused by us and Turnkey Engine supply. The LT1 is an amazing platform. The version we have is 460hp which is down on HP compared to the LS3 525hp. But we have worked hard to get the 460hp LT1 as close to the LS3 as we can. I think we have a good package now.
Since we have been changing engines and chasing issues we have not been as on top of prep stuff. We did end up changing PS pump and front brake pads at the race in the pits. Haha We also decided to get our Can Am race ready to use it to pre run the course in the Rally class. That added a lot of extra work and put us behind. Nathan at G-out has been working his butt off. Short story on the Can am. It did really well and made all of day 1 and 1.75 laps of day 2. My daughter Olivia was going to drive the last lap but Connor broke the rear knuckle before she got in the driver's seat. Shew did get to Co Drive for two laps and had a fun time. They had a blast in the Can am though.
Qualifying we did pretty well, and got 4th. Granted not a huge field of fast guys but still a good result. The truck ran great, but we had a major push and blowing through corners. After talking to SDG we decided we needed to make some adjustments. Usually I would not do this right before a race with no way to test but given the type of course we knew we needed to make a change. Too much oversteer would be better than understeer. We took the risk and made some huge changes to our setup. During the process and measurements we realized we had messed up some previous measurements. As Jason was going thru our file we realized we had too light of springs on the rear. Which is funny because a couple weeks ago I posted a video of us jumping and Jason texted me and said we look soft in the rear. Haha dude knows whats up. So we decided to counter that by adding pre load to the rears. We did not have the right spring rate to make the spring change. Overall these changes were good but lost a little traction and had a little too much pre load which made the truck more top heavy feeling and springy.
So race day we started with full fuel and latest changes on suspension. Also with new front brake pads that were not broke in. Connor had no idea how the truck was going to handle or brake into the first couple corners but he did great.
Watching the Racing Trax updates Connor was 2nd fastest at halfway of the first lap. Amazing pace for new setup. Harley was 14:00 flat, Connor 14:04, and Dustin 14:05. 5 seconds between the top 3 at half lap. Pretty cool to even be up in the top 5. Soon Connor got into dust. As they came into the infield they two wheeled hard before the finish line. Then right before the pit entrance they caught the inside of a corner and it popped them over onto their sides. Total time to get them rolled over and checked in the pits was about 6 minutes. During that time some slower trucks had passed them. The rest of the two laps was them not able to pass and stuck in dust. They finished 6th overall for day 1.
Day two was a tough call as we were trying to decide if Carson my 18yr old (co Driver) should drive to get seat time. The question was if we didn't have a chance of podium than might as well give Carson the wheel. But we knew we were faster than the two trucks in front of us and figured we could pass them. If we passed both of those trucks and caught the C10 car we would be in 3rd. So we decided we had a chance and put Connor back into the drivers seat on day 2 and go for our first Podium.
Half way of lap 1 Connor was in 3rd on time. Harley at 13:50, Dustin at 13:54, and Connor at 14:01. 4th was Stirling Miller at 14:12. The two Herling trucks were in front of us with Joe at 14:28 and Jerry at 14:56. So with no dust we knew we were faster than the Herling trucks and thought we had a chance to pass them. I mention these half lap times because it shows no dust pace. Connor had made up 30 seconds on Joe the truck in front of him at half lap. So by the numbers we had a chance.
Joe ended up rolling coming into the infield which opened the door for Connor to go get Jerry. Connor caught Jerry in a couple miles but could not get around him or close enough to nerf him. On the second lap they were within seconds of Jerry and I asked the boys if they thought they could get around him. If we didn’t have a chance and it was too hard to pass than I would have them swap drivers and give Carson at least one lap. But Carson said they can pass Jerry. They left the pits right behind Jerry and spent the last lap stuck behind him unable to pass in the dust. We finished 4th but could only make up the time between us and Jerry, no more. I was pretty bummed as clearly I made the wrong call to have Connor drive. There was no safe way to pass and that took some race seat time from Carson.
Overall we got 5th place, which is our best finish in a BITD race. Thats good but we have not lost sight of the fact that it was also one of the smallest 6100 groups we have raced and not a lot of fast guys. But a clean finish is huge for us regardless of the finishing place. We are proud of the speed and what the boys and our team accomplished. Very thankful our engine R&D seems to be over. If they would not have tipped over on lap 1 we would have had a solid 3rd place. So that’s on us, it was ours to lose.
I love a race that comes down to drivers and desert and not just truck issues. The call I made to not let Carson drive was tough and really bummed me out. I think that is why I was so pissed after the race. I had talked to Jerry Herling before day 2 race and he said he would move over as he only cared about a decent finish for season points. So I was bummed the boys got held up by him. I feel bad for getting in his business after the race and really just needed to let it go. Jerry is a great guy and does a lot for racing. He did not deserve my crap, Sorry Jerry. It’s amazing how heated and emotional we can get during these races.
Funny story. Grabowksi’s were pitted right next to us. Harley went by in Householders Herbst truck and his bed side was coming off. I walked over to Neal and asked if he sold Harley one of his special bed sides. Haha was thinking I was pretty funny. At the exact moment that I was talking trash to Neal I heard Connor on my headset saying they were on their side which is when we tore off one of our bed sides. So here comes Connor by the pits with a torn bedside. Neal loved it, Haha. Even better was at the end of day 2 Grabowksi has both bed sides and we lost both. Pretty funny stuff.
Mike
I have been putting off doing a race report until we finished a race and have a positive experience. Happy to report that Cal City was our first race in two years that we did not have a single truck/engine issue.
Let me say that again, since we have put the LT1 engine in our truck this is the first time we have had zero issues with the truck during the race. Feels so damn good.
Just to be clear most of the issues were not the engine’s fault in the past. Lots of issues caused by us and Turnkey Engine supply. The LT1 is an amazing platform. The version we have is 460hp which is down on HP compared to the LS3 525hp. But we have worked hard to get the 460hp LT1 as close to the LS3 as we can. I think we have a good package now.
Since we have been changing engines and chasing issues we have not been as on top of prep stuff. We did end up changing PS pump and front brake pads at the race in the pits. Haha We also decided to get our Can Am race ready to use it to pre run the course in the Rally class. That added a lot of extra work and put us behind. Nathan at G-out has been working his butt off. Short story on the Can am. It did really well and made all of day 1 and 1.75 laps of day 2. My daughter Olivia was going to drive the last lap but Connor broke the rear knuckle before she got in the driver's seat. Shew did get to Co Drive for two laps and had a fun time. They had a blast in the Can am though.
Qualifying we did pretty well, and got 4th. Granted not a huge field of fast guys but still a good result. The truck ran great, but we had a major push and blowing through corners. After talking to SDG we decided we needed to make some adjustments. Usually I would not do this right before a race with no way to test but given the type of course we knew we needed to make a change. Too much oversteer would be better than understeer. We took the risk and made some huge changes to our setup. During the process and measurements we realized we had messed up some previous measurements. As Jason was going thru our file we realized we had too light of springs on the rear. Which is funny because a couple weeks ago I posted a video of us jumping and Jason texted me and said we look soft in the rear. Haha dude knows whats up. So we decided to counter that by adding pre load to the rears. We did not have the right spring rate to make the spring change. Overall these changes were good but lost a little traction and had a little too much pre load which made the truck more top heavy feeling and springy.
So race day we started with full fuel and latest changes on suspension. Also with new front brake pads that were not broke in. Connor had no idea how the truck was going to handle or brake into the first couple corners but he did great.
Watching the Racing Trax updates Connor was 2nd fastest at halfway of the first lap. Amazing pace for new setup. Harley was 14:00 flat, Connor 14:04, and Dustin 14:05. 5 seconds between the top 3 at half lap. Pretty cool to even be up in the top 5. Soon Connor got into dust. As they came into the infield they two wheeled hard before the finish line. Then right before the pit entrance they caught the inside of a corner and it popped them over onto their sides. Total time to get them rolled over and checked in the pits was about 6 minutes. During that time some slower trucks had passed them. The rest of the two laps was them not able to pass and stuck in dust. They finished 6th overall for day 1.
Day two was a tough call as we were trying to decide if Carson my 18yr old (co Driver) should drive to get seat time. The question was if we didn't have a chance of podium than might as well give Carson the wheel. But we knew we were faster than the two trucks in front of us and figured we could pass them. If we passed both of those trucks and caught the C10 car we would be in 3rd. So we decided we had a chance and put Connor back into the drivers seat on day 2 and go for our first Podium.
Half way of lap 1 Connor was in 3rd on time. Harley at 13:50, Dustin at 13:54, and Connor at 14:01. 4th was Stirling Miller at 14:12. The two Herling trucks were in front of us with Joe at 14:28 and Jerry at 14:56. So with no dust we knew we were faster than the Herling trucks and thought we had a chance to pass them. I mention these half lap times because it shows no dust pace. Connor had made up 30 seconds on Joe the truck in front of him at half lap. So by the numbers we had a chance.
Joe ended up rolling coming into the infield which opened the door for Connor to go get Jerry. Connor caught Jerry in a couple miles but could not get around him or close enough to nerf him. On the second lap they were within seconds of Jerry and I asked the boys if they thought they could get around him. If we didn’t have a chance and it was too hard to pass than I would have them swap drivers and give Carson at least one lap. But Carson said they can pass Jerry. They left the pits right behind Jerry and spent the last lap stuck behind him unable to pass in the dust. We finished 4th but could only make up the time between us and Jerry, no more. I was pretty bummed as clearly I made the wrong call to have Connor drive. There was no safe way to pass and that took some race seat time from Carson.
Overall we got 5th place, which is our best finish in a BITD race. Thats good but we have not lost sight of the fact that it was also one of the smallest 6100 groups we have raced and not a lot of fast guys. But a clean finish is huge for us regardless of the finishing place. We are proud of the speed and what the boys and our team accomplished. Very thankful our engine R&D seems to be over. If they would not have tipped over on lap 1 we would have had a solid 3rd place. So that’s on us, it was ours to lose.
I love a race that comes down to drivers and desert and not just truck issues. The call I made to not let Carson drive was tough and really bummed me out. I think that is why I was so pissed after the race. I had talked to Jerry Herling before day 2 race and he said he would move over as he only cared about a decent finish for season points. So I was bummed the boys got held up by him. I feel bad for getting in his business after the race and really just needed to let it go. Jerry is a great guy and does a lot for racing. He did not deserve my crap, Sorry Jerry. It’s amazing how heated and emotional we can get during these races.
Funny story. Grabowksi’s were pitted right next to us. Harley went by in Householders Herbst truck and his bed side was coming off. I walked over to Neal and asked if he sold Harley one of his special bed sides. Haha was thinking I was pretty funny. At the exact moment that I was talking trash to Neal I heard Connor on my headset saying they were on their side which is when we tore off one of our bed sides. So here comes Connor by the pits with a torn bedside. Neal loved it, Haha. Even better was at the end of day 2 Grabowksi has both bed sides and we lost both. Pretty funny stuff.
Mike
